Friday, July 21, 2006

RTI Request for the pay refixation information

RTI relevent paras are given below. the original is here :
6
(1) A person, who desires to obtain any information under this Act, shall make a request in writing or through electronic means in English or Hindi or in the official language of the area in which the application is being made, accompanying such fee as may be prescribed, to—
(a) the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, of the concerned public authority;
(b) the Central Assistant Public Information Officer or State Assistant Public Information Officer, as the case may be,
specifying the particulars of the information sought by him or her:
Provided that where such request cannot be made in writing, the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, shall render all reasonable assistance to the person making the request orally to reduce the same in writing.
(2) An applicant making request for information shall not be required to give any reason for requesting the information or any other personal details except those that may be necessary for contacting him.
(3) Where an application is made to a public authority requesting for an information,—
(i) which is held by another public authority; or
(ii) the subject matter of which is more closely connected with the functions of another public authority,
the public authority, to which such application is made, shall transfer the application or such part of it as may be appropriate to that other public authority and inform the applicant immediately about such transfer:
Provided that the transfer of an application pursuant to this sub-section shall be made as soon as practicable but in no case later than five days from the date of receipt of the application.


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I have raised a RTI request. Here is the email and the html document attached to it for those who want to raise an RTI:

From: xxx @...>Mailed-By: gmail.com
To:webmaster@mod.nic.in
Date: Jul 19, 2006 11:16 PM
Subject: REQUEST UNDER RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT
Reply | Reply to all | Forward | Print | Add sender to Contacts list | Delete this message | Show original | Message text garbled?
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Sir,
I am forwarding the enclosed application to you for further delivery to

Shri D.K. Pandey, Director (Fin/Est/MO)

+91-11-23015539

Right to Information Officer,

7-A, South Block, Ministry of Defence (Finance), New Delhi.

as your email address is listed in the official page of the Ministry of Defence.

Yours sincerely,
Lt Col xxxx yyyy(Retd)

--
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Where the people fear the government you have tyranny; where the government fears the people, you have liberty.
0
William Feather (1908 - 1976)

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_______________________________
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
This email message including any attachments is legally privileged, confidential and is for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is expressly prohibited. If you have received this email message in error, please immediately notify us by email and destroy all copies of the message. Thank you.

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Lt Col xxxx yyyy(Retd)

Phone: xxxxx yyyyy, email: xxxx@... xxxxx yyyyyyyyy Apt# 4

Ex- IC xxxxxxxx zzzzz xxxxx, xxxx yyyy

CDA(O) A/c no: xxxxxxx 19 July 2006

To

Shri D.K. Pandey, Director (Fin/Est/MO)

+91-11-23015539

Right to Information Officer,

7-A, South Block, Ministry of Defence (Finance), New Delhi.

This is an Application under the Right to Information Act 2005

1. I, IC-xxxxx, Lt Col xxxx yyyy (Retd) was commissioned into the Army on 15 june 19xx. I retired from Army on 1 February 19xx.

2. The 4th Pay Commission was appointed for proposing recommendations to the Central Government Staff including Defence Personnel. In terms of the recommendations of the 4th Pay Commission, Ministry of Defence had also issued notification for pay revision of Commissioned Officers. As per the notification, the integrated pay scale for the officers upto the rank of Brigadier in the Army and equivalent ranks in the Navy and Air Force was revised to Rs 2300-100-3900-150-4200-EB-250-5100. The Government, while accepting the recommendations of the 4th Pay Commission, also sanctioned, in addition to the integrated scale, Rank Pay which was prescribed for each category. Notification was also issued, being Resolution Number 9E dated 18 Mar 1987 and was also published in the Gazette of India. It was also notified that the above revision of pay will be retrospective in force with effect from 01 Jan 1986. It is submitted that from the recommendations of the 4th Pay Commission and from the Resolution dated 18 Mar 1987, it is clear that Rank Pay is a separate element for officers upto the rank of Brigadier and equivalent.

3. That Major Dhanapalan had filed writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India before the Hon'ble Kerala High Court being O.P. Number 2448/1996 for Fixation of Pay Scale and grant of Rank Pay.
The said writ petition was allowed by the Hon'ble Single Bench of Kerala High Court vide order dated 05 Oct 1998 holding that :-

" ….. Under these circumstances, I am of the view that the Respondents 2 and 3 had completely misunderstood the scope of extending benefit of payment of Rank Pay to the Army officers. Rank Pay is something, which has been given to the Army officers in addition to the existing pay scales. That is not an amount which has to be deducted in order to arrive at the total emoluments which an Army officer is entitled to get."

4. The Hon'ble Court was pleased to direct the respondents to re-fix the pay of the Petitioner, i.e. Major Dhanapalan with effect from 01 Jan 1986 without deducting Rank Pay.

5. Aggrieved against the said order, Union of India and others, i.e. Respondents, filed a Writ Appeal being W.A. Number 518/1999. When the said writ appeal came up for hearing, the Appellants were directed to file additional affidavit. Additional affidavit of Shri B. Brahma, Director (AG), Ministry of Defence was filed on 07 Dec 2000.

8. That the Hon'ble Division Bench of the High Court of Kerala dismissed the said writ appeal vide its order dated 04 Jul 2003.

9. That aggrieved against the said order dated 04 Jul 2003, Special Leave Petition being S.L.P. Number 14165/2005 was filed by the Respondents before the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India and the said S.L.P. was also dismissed vide order dated 12 Jul 2005.

10. That I am a similarly placed person and I am also entitled to the Rank Pay which has not been given to me upon wrong interpretation of the recommendations of the 4th Pay Commission and Order of Government of India accepting the recommendations.

11. That some of my colleagues have made representation in this regard to the CDA (Officers) Pune who has rejected their representations on the ground that the order of Hon'ble High Court was implemented restricting benefit to Major Dhanapalan only. In this regard, your attention is brought to the judgement of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in the case of "Amrit Lal v/s Collector, C.E.C., Revenue" reported as "AIR 1975 SC 538" wherein it has been held in page 548 that :-

We may, however, observe that when a citizen by the action of a Government Department has approached the Court and obtained a declaration of law in his favour, others, in like circumstances, should also be able to rely on the sense of responsibility of the Department concerned and to expect that they will be given the benefit of this declaration without the need to take their grievance to Court."

12. In view of the above, under the Right to Information Act 2005 (No. 22 of 2005), I hereby seek the following information:

1. The date action has been taken to refix the pay of Maj Dhanapalan in consequence of the above court order.
2. The date by which a similar action will be taken in my case in view of the Supreme court ruling ( "Amrit Lal v/s Collector, C.E.C., Revenue" reported as "AIR 1975 SC 538") as this action becomes imperative for the Ministry of Defence to fulfill "the sense of responsibility of the Department concerned and to expect that they will be given the benefit of this declaration without the need to take their grievance to Court." as I am one of the others , in like circumstances.
3. In case a decision has been taken to deny the benefit to me, the detailed reasonoing of your Ministry why such benefit is denied to me so that I may seek justice at the doors of the Supreme Court of India to get a writ issued against your Ministry to force you to comply with the law of the land.


I will make necessary arrangements to make the payment under RTI to your office immediately on receipt of the details of the amount. Please let me know the amount by email.

Yours Sincerely,

Lt Col xxxxxxxx yyyy(Retd)

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PAY FIXATION CASE
REPLY BY MIN OF DEFENCE
No:1(5)/2006/D(Pay/Services)
Government iof Indai
Ministry of Defence
New Delhi , the 29th August, 2006


To

Lt Col CPC Nath(Retd)
6830 Woodley Ave Apt#4
Van Nuys, California 91406
USA

Subject: Extension of Benefits of the judgement of the High Court of Kerala in Writ Petition filed by Maj AK Dhanapalan(Retd) to similarly persons.


Sir,
I am directed to refer to your letter dated 19th July, 2006 addressed to Director(Fin/Est/MO) in this Ministry on the above subject and to state that in pursuance of the order of the High Court of Kerala in the above said case , sanction for re-fixation of the pay and pension of the petitioner was issued in August, 2005 and arrears of Rs 28,031/- were paid to him.
1. Consequent to the said judgement, the Ministry has been receiving a number of representations from retired/serving Defefnce officers for grant of similar benfits. Some of the retired officers have filed Writ petitions in various High Courts. In this connection, it is stated that all these officers did not take up this issue with the concerned authority in their Service Heaquarters and with this Ministry through statutory complaint and other channels and have now raised the issue almost 20 years later. The principles of latches is, attracted in the instant case. Moreover, records of so many officers belonging to eighties and early nineties will not be available.
3. The matter has been carefully considered and it has been decided to contest the writ petitions filed in various High Courts. At the same time, the Ministry aDefence has decided to file Special Leave petitions/Review Petition in the Supreme Court against the judgement of the High Court of Kerala in Maj AK Dhanapalan's case .
Your faithfully
sd/-
(R K Grover)
Under Secretary to the Govt of India


posted by CPC Nath at 3:24 AM

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